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Week 1 vs. The Sack State Whore Nets

Cave_Johnson

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What a clever title. But I know what you're thinking, and no I'm not shit talking these guys or taking this game lightly. I root for Idaho. I can't do that. In fact, if you believe in the transitive properly of college football, both Idaho and Sacramento State beat Montana State by 3 points last season. So logically last year these two teams would have played to a 10 overtime draw or something. Right?

Okay, the transitive property doesn't work in college football. But consider Idaho's last 5 games against FCS competition.

2010 vs. North Dakota 45-0 W - Pretty good
2011 vs. North Dakota 44-14 W - Alright, nice
2012 vs. EWU 20-3 L - Oh fuck, that's not good. To be fair Idaho was playing with a third string walk-on QB this game, but shit. 3 points? WTF?
2015 vs. Wofford 41-38 W - Too close for comfort
2016 vs. Montana State 20-17 W - Way too close for comfort

So two blowouts against a school transitioning to FCS, a loss to an admittedly very good EWU team, and two almost-losses to schools that were bad that year. And one of those almost-losses came last year when the Vandals won 9 games at the FBS level. That's not very encouraging.

Nah, man. I ain't taking Sac St. lightly here. They've got a somewhat recent upset under their belt. They beat Oregon State in Corvallis in 2011 and then only won 3 other games the rest of that year. That has no relevance to the game on Thursday, but it just goes to show that even an FCS team that is projected to be bad can catch somebody napping.

So do I think Sac State can realistically win this game? Well, I think they have a better shot than Idaho has had against some of the P5 schools they've been smacked around by in recent year. Those games had a tendency to get ugly fast. But on paper Idaho should win this game with no problem. And usually if something is true on paper, it's also true in practice.

So let's talk about the Hornets. Sacramento State was picked to finish 12th in the Big Sky over only.....guess who? No really. There's only one obvious answer.

That's right, the Culinary Academy of Idaho in Pocatello.

So that's not great news for the Hornets right off the bat. They're only supposed to be better than Idaho State. What about last year though? Well, I told you Sac St. beat Montana State but they only won one other game: A 7 point victory over Portland State. To make matters worse they actually lost to DII Western Oregon in their season opener. Eeek.

What about returning starters? Well...their starting QB from last season transferred to North Dakota at the beginning of the year. Sac St's O-line giving up 36 sacks may have had something to do with that.The Hornets also lose roughly 40% of their total offensive production from last season due to RBs Jordan Robinson and Demetrius Warren graduating. They seem to be looking to FBS transfers to fill these roles.

Junior Kevin Thompson (from UNLV) and senior Kolney Cassel (SMU) were competing for the starting job at QB but it appears as if injuries have given the job to Thompson by default. Graduate transfer Joseph Ajeigb from Duke will look to fill the void at RB, however he managed only 319 yards and one TD last season for the Blue Devils.

Isiah Hennie leads what could be a talented receiving group, but if the O-line doesn't improve and QB play isn't there they won't matter much.

On defense Sac St. gave up 40 ppg and 526 ypg last season, good for 12th and 13th in the Big Sky respectively. They also caused few turnovers and were often gashed by big plays. The one bright spot for the defense is preseason all-conference DE Ben Sorensen. We'll see if he can make some plays against a young Idaho O-line.

Okay, so this shouldn't be much of a contest when you look into how badly the Hornets have struggled. That said, I have a really hard time thinking Petrino is going to allow this Idaho team to look past this game or play to the level of their competition, so I do expect Idaho to come out all guns blazing. Ideally they have a few strong drives and can salt away the rest of the game pounding the rock behind Idaho's biggest advantage in this game, the O-line.

Don't get cute, use your athletes, and play your game. That's what Idaho needs to do here. I'm hoping for a blowout and for some younger guys to get some game experience before the measuring stick contest against UNLV. Honestly, Idaho is in trouble if they can't win this game by three scores or more.

Prediction: Idaho comes out strong and finishes the game running the ball down Sac State's throat. The Hornets grab a garbage time TD.

Final Score:

Idaho 38
Sac St. 10

I'll be in the dome on Thursday.

Go Vandals.
 

Cave_Johnson

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Worth noting: The first 12,000 fans to the game get a free t-shirt.
Also worth noting: Idaho has never had 12,000 fans at a Thursday night opener. Ever.
 

BoiseStateFan27

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LOL! Big fan of the thread title

Good luck sir
 

Cave_Johnson

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LOL! Big fan of the thread title

Good luck sir
Lol, they gonna need it. End of 1st tied 0-0. Sac. St looks bad but Idaho looks worse. #1 WR went down. Actually now 3-0 Sac. St.
 

Cave_Johnson

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Well. 14-6 at half after 2 big Idaho plays and the Vandals gift wrap Sac St. 3 at the end. Idaho's O-line looks like shit. Saunders and Onunwar both out on offense. Matt taking too many unnecessary sacks and not looking that strong despite a decent stat line. Defense is making plays. Can't complain much there but they'll need to force a TO at some point.
 

Cave_Johnson

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Really ugly offensive performance, but the defense did what they were supposed to do. 28-6 win. Saunders came back in, Onunwar did not
 

Cave_Johnson

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Worth noting: The first 12,000 fans to the game get a free t-shirt.
Also worth noting: Idaho has never had 12,000 fans at a Thursday night opener. Ever.
Announced attendance: 10.5k

I was there. There were 8k tops. A lot of little African kids about to be running around in Idaho football shirts. 4k probably.
 

FaCe-LeE-uS

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Announced attendance: 10.5k

I was there. There were 8k tops. A lot of little African kids about to be running around in Idaho football shirts. 4k probably.
Now that the alcohol ban was removed all the students that have tickets will be out in the parking lot lol.
 

FaCe-LeE-uS

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Linehan didn't look very good but they got a big game from Duckworth!
 

Cave_Johnson

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Linehan didn't look very good but they got a big game from Duckworth!
Yeah that was huge after two big offensive threats went down. Saunders played fine when he was in, but Duck really took that game over. Can't complain having two stud backs like this.

Apparently Petrino made some comments about new guys on the line just straight up blowing their assignments. They're going to have to get that shit figured out against UNLV. The Rebels have a tune-up game against Howard tomorrow so depending on that game goes we may or may not be able to gauge how good they are going to be.

Linehan.....yeah. Dude needs to learn to throw the ball away and get down when he's running down field. Aside from that he really only had two bad throws, but both ended up being picks which is not something you want to see from a team that fed on winning the turnover battle last year. Losing the TO battle 3-0 was a big reason the game was as close as it was. Still, Matt made some big plays scrambling out and hitting Duckworth for a big gain in the second and then later that quarter dropping one perfectly into Mwehla's lap.

Honestly surprised the defense didn't get a TO. They forced at least one fumble that I remember, but didn't recover it. Regardless, they were pretty smothering but they should have been against a very bad Sac. St. offense.
 

FaCe-LeE-uS

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Yeah that was huge after two big offensive threats went down. Saunders played fine when he was in, but Duck really took that game over. Can't complain having two stud backs like this.

Apparently Petrino made some comments about new guys on the line just straight up blowing their assignments. They're going to have to get that shit figured out against UNLV. The Rebels have a tune-up game against Howard tomorrow so depending on that game goes we may or may not be able to gauge how good they are going to be.

Linehan.....yeah. Dude needs to learn to throw the ball away and get down when he's running down field. Aside from that he really only had two bad throws, but both ended up being picks which is not something you want to see from a team that fed on winning the turnover battle last year. Losing the TO battle 3-0 was a big reason the game was as close as it was. Still, Matt made some big plays scrambling out and hitting Duckworth for a big gain in the second and then later that quarter dropping one perfectly into Mwehla's lap.

Honestly surprised the defense didn't get a TO. They forced at least one fumble that I remember, but didn't recover it. Regardless, they were pretty smothering but they should have been against a very bad Sac. St. offense.
I really liked what I saw from the defense. Hard to gauge how good they actually are until they face better competition. UNLV will be a good test.

BTW... Great work on all the analysis/previews/recaps/etc Cave! Love reading all of it! :suds:
 

Cave_Johnson

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I really liked what I saw from the defense. Hard to gauge how good they actually are until they face better competition. UNLV will be a good test.

BTW... Great work on all the analysis/previews/recaps/etc Cave! Love reading all of it! :suds:

Thanks, meng. I try.

As far as UNLV.....well....the Rebels were 40+ point favorites against Howard yesterday and lost by 3. That probably just means they'll be pissed off coming into Moscow though. I'm still expecting a close one. Definitely a game Idaho needs to win.
 

FaCe-LeE-uS

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Thanks, meng. I try.

As far as UNLV.....well....the Rebels were 40+ point favorites against Howard yesterday and lost by 3. That probably just means they'll be pissed off coming into Moscow though. I'm still expecting a close one. Definitely a game Idaho needs to win.
Cam's little brother Caylin is a stud. UNLV was stunned...
 
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